Not long after my first large vacuum tube find I received a second phone call from someone asking me if I was the guy who collected vacuum tubes. I said yes, of course, and arranged to meet this gentleman at his place of employment. I had to actually sneak away from my own job to go to meet him. This just made it all the more exciting.

When I arrived the gentleman explained to me that his father had once owned a TV / Radio repair shop but that his father retired many years ago and had also recently passed away. He led me to an SUV in the parking lot and opened the rear gate. There in front of me were several medium sized moving boxes all neatly packed, nearly to perfection, with a plethora of NOS (New Old Stock) vacuum tubes. He said he would leave me alone for a few minutes to assess the worth / value of the items. I had no way of sorting through them so I quickly estimated the number of tubes in the boxes, calculated the grand total that I would offer (I’m a risk taker) and soon became the proud owner of them.

You can see them here in the photos. The feel good endorphins were very high on this day.